Dear Diary,

Grandpa Dwight came for a visit and got me all distracted so I haven’t written in a while. Big Sis had met him before but it was my first visit. Grandpa Dwight is gigantic! He’s 10 feet tall and weighs 1000 pounds! He scared me a lot at first. But then I remember that Uncle Jeff is gigantic too, and after that I wasn’t scared of Grandpa Dwight anymore. Plus, he gave me really good treats when the Mamas weren’t looking.

Friday night, Uncle Brian came over. We were allowed to romp around the back yard in Mama L.’s vegetable patch while they were grilling. Uncle Brian grilled scallops and salmon steaks, because he’s a good chef, and everybody ate a lot. I got a couple of pieces of salmon — boy, that was yummy! Then afterwards, they all sat around and played poker. Uncle Brian accused Grandpa Dwight of cheating and stealing all his money! And Grandpa Dwight accused Uncle Brian of making up the rules and changing them. I got kinda bored of all this so I put myself to bed.

Mama L.’s friend, Auntie Peggy, said that Beatrice The Cat’s writing reminded her of some famous Turkish author named Orhan Pamuk, who wrote some famous novel called My Name is Red. I didn’t know that Auntie Peggy is Turkish. But more importantly, why is Beatrice more famous than me? At least she said I was erudite. (I had to ask Mama L. what that means coz it’s such a big word.)

Mama L. told me about a woman she saw at the coffee shop. She is in a wheelchair because she has no arms and no legs. But she was able to move around all by herself because she has a special motorized chair. Mama L. was humbly impressed by this that she told me all about it. She said we all take a lot of things for granted in life and we should all take a moment to appreciate all the good fortunes we have in our daily lives. Then she gave me a big kiss and told me she loves me!

This morning, Mama L. found out that she just got laid off because there is no workload to support staff at where she works. They’re laying off several people so I guess it’s bad all over. But she doesn’t seem to take it too badly — I guess this just means she’ll have more time to spend with me now!